As a guest on The Pat McAfee show, WWE president Nick Khan spoke about the WWE’s deal with Netflix.
“Once the Smackdown deal closed we hyper-focused on Raw. It was a robust marketplace. We had a number of meetings. There was a lot of interest. There were a number of offers,” commented Khan saying one of the biggest factors is that WWE would be doing all the heavy lifting when it came to the Raw broadcasts. “It came together in a couple of months and we think it is a great deal.”
He called the Endeavor, Netflix deals and The Rock joining the Board of Directors, as “a great start to the next chapter at WWE”.
He was also asked about the chances that Monday Night Raw might switch nights.
“At this moment in time, it remains Monday Night Raw but keep in mind we’ve got 10 and a half months until this deal’s up and running so we’re looking at what you’re looking at and what everyone else is looking at. You have a proliferation of gambling with Monday Night Football. You have an enhanced Disney package, better games, all credit to (ESPN President) Jimmy Pitaro…Bob Iger (Disney CEO) and all the other good folks at Disney,” said Khan.
Khan pointed out there is increased competition on Monday nights.
“You’ve got the Manningcast. This year, it was on ABC and ESPN Monday Night Football. You got last season the playoff game that they got I believe was Tom Brady at the Cowboys, the season before, whatever that was. You also have the college national championship, football and hoops on Mondays. So, you’ve got a lot of Mondays where there is stiff competition,” he stated. “With that said, even against Alabama versus Michigan and the Washington versus Texas game a few weeks ago, Monday Night Raw did a 0.6 in the 18 to 49 demo which is a massive rating against big competition. If we stay on Monday’s it’ll work. If we move to a different day we think it’ll work too.”
Khan tipped his hat to Vince McMahon and Kevin Dunn during the interview as well.
“There would be no WWE without Vince McMahon and Kevin Dunn. Both in my opinion are the greatest of all time in terms of what they did and contributed to build what is now a massive enterprise,” he said.
Mat Matters: What the Raw move to Netflix means to you and the media landscape
